j2b4osan said: how about an oak neck?? also I forgot to mention before I am going to use only environmentally friendly non toxic glues finishes & stains.
But you will still be using "environmentally friendly" wood, right? 😉
Anyway, if you are serious about starting a new line of guitars, my best advice is to keep it as simple as possible to begin with, so you can keep production costs and sale prices down. Once the business is going well, THEN you branch out into more ambitious ideas. But that's just business advice.
As for what I would like on a guitar... coil taps, blower switches, and an input jack (I've always wondered... shouldn't an input jack actually be called an output jack???) for each pickup. Also, it has always been a goal of mine (which I am sort of in the process of executing) of having 3 completely different pickups in a guitar. One of the (very few) things that has always bugged me about strats is that they have 3 very similar pickups, resulting in less versatility of sound.
Also, more exotic colours are always welcome. Less red, black, white, and more yellow, orange, green, etc.
As for woods, the reasons alder, basswood, poplar, et al are so ubiquitous in luthery is because a) they are common and cheap, and 😎 they are tried and true woods for guitar making. It's a balance that had been found between tone, workability, and price. Try oak, by all means, but you will find it is extremely dense and heavy, and hard to work with. I would not want it slung over my shoulder for a 90-minute set.
Good luck with it.
